So I finally got round to making this coin pearl bracelet to go with the necklace that I made a while ago, Maybe in future I should try making them together now there’s a thought! Men, Multi-tasking just doesn’t really work together lol. I love working with coin pearls especially if you can source out real quality ones otherwise it’s not worth it as I guess you could say I try to be a bit of a perfectionist. I’d have to admit I’m very fussy when it comes to materials, I have so many designs on paper but I only like to use top quality bits and bobs that’s why I have so many unfinished designs hanging around the workshop. You don’t really see to much coin pearl jewellery about and it’s a bit different from the norm so like I said I love working with them especially when you have a good design you can make some wonderful pieces of jewellery. When I’m in the workshop late at night having a brain storming session! Which let’s be honest doesn’t happen to often lol.I love mixing pearls and gemstones it’s one of my favourite parts of designing  but you have to get the mix right for it to have that elegant and sellable look. One of the best combo’s with pearls and gemstones I feel is white/cream pearls with blue gemstones, Just something about pearls and blues it makes me think of sandy beaches while watching an Ocean or Sea  or I’m I just thinking of where I would lie to be right now! Focus, I have used Aquamarine for this design as you might have read in the title of this blog!  But lots of other blue stones would look good as well such as London blue Topaz, Tanzanite or even Sapphire but I went with a warm colour that blends in well and not to over powering but just to give it a little contrast. So to start with I have used a solid and elegant sterling silver charm holder with a whopping 14mm graded coin pearl which has a lovely iridescence about it. Mingled in and around the coin we have AA graded 3mm Aquamarine faceted rondelles which give it that little bit of sparkly needed which are accompanied with beautiful 3-4mm round pearls so overall it makes a wonderful center piece. Now for the rest of the bracelet we used 8-9mm coin pearls to tie in the bracelet as a whole, These little beauties have a wonderful shape and colour about them. Now I have changed the clasp used on the necklace to one which I think suits the design a little better, As you can see it’s a beautifully designed twisted heart and arrow clasp and yes it will also be on the necklace from now on( Yes I’m a professional lol). I have to say the bracelet is very feminine and elegant and would look good on any women’s wrist, That’s not being big headed I’m just very proud and happy to have made this piece and if you don’t have confidence in your work then your in trouble. So all I have to do is make up some earrings and bing bang boo what a lovely set we shall have for you lovely people to wear. OK it’s Friday afternoon, It’s only taken me a week to write this blog! The day is just starting for me, No rest for the wicked I have to re-take some photo’s of our new personalised silver and rose gold bracelet which I hope to chat about in a few days. Till the next time, Don’t be like the rest, Be an IndiviJewel!

Now it feels like Summer! This week has been lovely, Could really get used to weather like this shame it won’t last. As the weather has been fantastic not much has been achieved by way of work but on the bright side four down and three to go, Yes that’s right I’m on about weeks and how long my charming cherubs have left before the dreaded return to school, come on most of you are counting down just like me. While the kids are destroying the house and garden over the holidays I have locked myself in the work shop and designed and made a new addition to our “Bird’s Nest” range which I kinda like, wasn’t sure how the idea in my head would look in the flesh but it’s even better than I imagined. I’m now in the thought process of designing an entire range based on these three little entwined balls. With the good weather comes the weddings and if any brides are looking for something a little unique then this is definitely one to check out, There will be a matching necklace at some point didn’t quite get round to that as it was a late one when I made the bracelet. The pearls are amazing when in natural light which can sometimes be a problem when just looking at a photo as it doesn’t always give you that true reflection of their quality. The pearls are graded AA+ and I have added a new spacer in between them that I have sourced out, I always like to have a space in between the pearls on my work I just think it looks classy. This spacer is a 3mm donut yes that’s right a donut!  and it fits round the pearls like a glove and improves the design which is always what I try to do f possible with all our work. There is nothing better than using real quality components when designing jewellery that’s why we pride ourselves on using quality materials. So I then used 20 inches of each of the following, Rose gold, 14k Gold fill and sterling silver 0.5 wire to make the balls which did take a few attempts as it can be a little tricky to get the start right as you don’t have a lot to play with and sometimes it ended up like an American football. All three “Bird’s Nest” hang from a beautiful solid and chunky charm carrier, The carrier itself is very elegantly designed so it really fits with all of my designs but especially when working with pearls. I like the components I use to all be in proportion so the overall design of my work looks correct and this can be tricky when using multiple materials which can be time consuming but I lucked out on this one! so I was very happen with the toggle I used to finish the design off, Very solid and chunky looking  just like the charm carrier and fitted really well with it and it just made the bracelet come together which made me happy because I really don’t like trolling through website after website looking for materials especially as I have no patience and want to finish my work quickly lol. This bracelet is a unique design and can be worn for everyday use but obviously does and will be thought of as a wedding /Bridal piece but it’s very elegant and well made so I’m more than happy with it lets hope everyone else does too. OK so on to the next design, Right best get back to the little people and see if one still has a house to live in. so don’t be like the rest be an IndiviJewel! Yes still loving the cheesy tag line.

Morning one and all, What a gorgeous sunny day we are having this fine Sunday, It’s amazing how a bit of sun puts a spring in your step and a smile on your face! So before I have to drag the kids off Batman 3 to take them and the mad mutt out I want to get this blog up and running, Told you I was getting on a roll with making stuff. Well I’m excited about this design, Some pieces you just get a good buzz about and that’s how it was when making this Coin pearl necklace With the summer season fast approaching it’s even more of a reason to show your pearls off, The way the sunshine reflects off pearls to show the different colors in the pearl are amazing. OK enough about sunshine as I’m getting a bit delirious thinking about a beach and a cocktail, I feel like booking a holiday now, Focus man there is work to do! In any case I need you guys to buy this necklace first so I can go on my travels lol. So first up it’s really hard to find an elegant charm holder bead, There’s not that many around but I have managed to source one out which I’m more than happy with. So on the charm holder I have attached a whopper of a coin pearl, A 14mm one which as you can see from the photo’s looks great quality to which it is! otherwise I wouldn’t use it! Around the pearl I have added a little cluster of 3-4mm round pearls and mingled in between are some beautiful 3mm aquamarine faceted rondelles, I love using faceted gemstones they just look more classy and give off a wonderful sparkle when the light hits them. So now we have our main focal point it’s onto the rest of the necklace, Now I did try using round pearls for this and it did work but I felt it just wasn’t right so I found these lovely cute 8-9mm coin pearls which when I put it all together just clicked straight away, As per usual I added the sterling silver spacers in between the pearls as I just think it looks more classy and elegant. Now the look of the necklace is unique (As always) and it gives the necklace it’s own identity and as you know I like my designs to flow and have the same look all over. So all in all I’m really happy with it and will be making the bracelet at some point today ready for photo’s during this coming week (Fingers crossed). Just as I near the end of another fact based roller coaster of a blog the sky is now GREY! Unbelievable so instead of a nice relaxing stroll in the woods thinking about summer jewellery it will be two head to toe muddy kids and a soggy boggy mutt to clean this afternoon! Right time to say bye for now so see you next time, Be an IndiviJewel!

OK feel I need to get on with some serious blogging as I’m getting to far behind so here I’ am “Mr Sadurday nite” yes thats right SADurday nite and welcome to my madhouse, a screaming baby and a very loud toddler wanting to play my computer games and one mad hound stoating round the house looking for dropped food lol. Well I’m blogging for a reason tonight and its to write about another new piece which is our personalised silver rings bracelet. Our other rings bracelet with the gold and silver rings has been a great success but we had quite a few enquiries about an all silver one as not everyone likes gold. I had planed to put both bracelets on at the same time but due to lack of time, yes I know someone get the violins out! lol and lack of certain stock items I couldn’t get it on until now.Somethings you really do like to make and I love making this bracelet, its just so unique and something different to all the other bracelets out there that just look so similar to each other. I have added one new finding which I will add to the other bracelet which is the charm holder which looks fantastic on this bracelet and to me just completes it. I couldn’t believe how hard it was to find a charm holder, I did plan to use this in the original design but just couldn’t get my hands on one. If I wasn’t a bloke I would love to wear this but people might think I’m a big girls blouse as they say which there’s nothing wrong with but I have a reputation to pretend to have lol. Will have to look into designing a manly version! OK back onto the subject matter. The good thing I like about this bracelet is the person detail you can have on it, A name of a loved one or a special date in time that means so much. My favourite  is inspirational words because my niece is at university and for her last birthday I made her a gold and silver rings bracelet with three charms which had the words believe,dream and inspire just to give her a little boost when she finds it tough going. OK that’s enough waffle from me at the moment.

Well here we are again another week that is just flying right by. Not doing as much blogging as I would like lately due to our two young boys that seem to be eating up our time. We have got lots of ideas and designs made or in the pipeline so its looking good for the future, Anyway lets get down to this blog which is about our bestselling Birds nest necklace and earrings. We have had a few designs of bracelets jotted down on paper for such a long time but as normal haven’t got round to seriously putting anything together, that was until we had a customer who wanted the necklace and earrings for her wedding but also a bracelet so we got down to work on designing a bracelet and these are two of final design drafts that we came up although it give us so many more. As you can see the first bracelet is designed for the more elegant look, very dainty not overpowering but just enough to have an effect when you are walking down the aisle. The second bracelet is a a dangle piece that is still very elegant but a a little more noticeable when walking along as the pearls swing around. All the pearls we used are very high quality with great luster and very few marks if any at all. We used a diamond belcher chain which gives it that dainty elegant look although I have tried it on a real thick chunky chain and it looks great so there’s another design for the future. Its amazing how many designs you can come up with when you have the same few materials.  Although I’ am a man and some women would say I haven’t a clue about weddings LOL, but I personally like women when they have all major jewellery pieces on by that I mean earrings,necklace and bracelet. I have seen numerous wedding photo’s were the bride just wears one or two pieces or even none and to me it just doesn’t look right, It can look lop-sided or incomplete but hey that’s just my opinion. OK enough of the wedding lecture  I’ll get off my soap box now.

Since we had the website re-vamped we have been looking into photographing our jewellery on new backgrounds. I cannot tell you how hard it is to photograph jewellery, We must have thousands of pics that we have taken but cannot use due to them just being rubbish lol. We have tried numerous props but they do not work for every piece due to different colours but then last week we were doing a bit of shopping in one of those “we have it all shops” and we came across a big pad full of fantastic looking vintage textured paper. It has different colours with different patterns but because its thick with a texture to it its great for jewellery. So we have been busy snapping away to get some fresh pics whichork and look fab. It makes it so much easier to get good pics without spending half  a day wondering what colours and props to use so here is our latest rework which is our beautiful Rosa bracelet on a delicious pinky background.

We decided to update one of our pieces which were the moonlight oxidised earrings. We thought we would bring abit of sparkle and brightness to this miserable summer so we have made a pair of sparkling earrings. We have kept the same design for this earrings but have changed the stone and have not oxidised them either. We changed the stone from opalite to grapefruit pink quartz and my are they really sumptuous. These earrings would be ideal for weddings either for the bride or bridesmaid in fact they would look good on anyone going to a wedding.